Let There Be Light
by Grand Phoenix
Summary: And Sasuke succumbed to his throes, his hand clamped over the empty eye socket. WARNING: Graphic descriptions and dark themes. Not for the faint of heart. Post Ch.387.


**Disclaimer :** All characters and places belong to Masashi Kishimoto, ©1999-2008

_A/N: Another Naruto story from the mind of yours truly :D, though this one's much darker than Sparda in Colossal and Roar of the Earth. I wrote half of this in a notebook and typed the rest on the computer; all it took was four days (holy crap, the same time I finished watching Simoun, LOLZ!). This story is the result from reading Chapter 387, a possibility of what could have happened if Sasuke REALLY DID lose his eye to Itachi (though canon-wise that didn't happen). However, this piece is very graphic, very dark, and not faint for the heart. So if you're not comfortable with any of this, that purple button over there will lead ya back to where you came from. No questions asked :D._

* * *

**Let There Be Light**

* * *

_"In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters. And God said, Let there be light: and there was light."_  
---- Genesis 1:1-3

_"An eye for an eye makes the whole world blind."_  
---- Mahatma Gandhi

* * *

He couldn't believe it. 

He couldn't believe it actually happened.

Why? Why didn't he see it coming?

Sasuke succumbed to his throes, his hand clamped over the empty eye socket. Blood ran beneath the valleys of his palm and spilled unchecked down his cheek. Acid churned in his bowels, groaning and churning like the waters of a raging sea.

But this. . . _this_ was _different_. Abormal. So. . .

Unbecoming. . .

Oh Gods. . . when was the last time he felt such pain? Such otherworldly agony? It had to be the time he was hit by the. . . by the----

He doubled over and retched, gore and bile pouring out his orifice. He clutched his stomach and bit back a moan, fighting against instinct to fall to his knees and bow before that man; his brother the demon, a sick abomination manifested from the eight layers of hell.

And there he stood, admiring his work. Eerie red portals twinkled merrily, the Mangekyou Sharingan super-imposed in the temple's firelight. His smile laughed and laughed, a full moon encased in three days of darkness and lunacy.

_(How the world burned. . .)_

Itachi glowed at the orb in his hand. It stared back at him, three _tomoe_ forever locked in frozen eternity.

"So beautiful," said the man, "so pure. . ."

Sasuke collapsed to one knee, grunting and panting. His hand fled from his stomach to the ground, supporting himself on shaking limbs.

Itachi rolled the eye around and about, poking and prodding with pale white fingers. "How I love to gaze from these windows."

_(Don't slide. Don't slide. Don't fall to earth.)_

His chest hurt. His head hurt. Everything hurt. . .

"I'll bet I will see the crows again in Mother's garden. Pecking and squabbling over those tomatoes. . ."

Everything hurt so _damn_ much. . .

"Just like the good ol' days."

Sasuke couldn't believe it happened, couldn't put together his action. He couldn't believe he reached out, five long digits spreading out like the sun, and dispeled. . ._dispeled. . ._

Dear Gods, it fucking _hurt. . ._

_'Stay awake! STAY AWAKE!!'_

Itachi hummed a pleasant hum, overlooking the lame eye with an appraising gaze.

_'No! NO!!'_

The former Uchiha turned to look at him, his face a picture of perfect relaxation. That fucking smile was still there, mocking him. . .

"Maybe some other time, Sasuke. . ." A full-blow grin suddenly bloomed and laughter began to rumble from his chest. He pocketed the Sharingan orb ---- which blinked at Sasuke ---- before disappearing into the cloak's dark folds. By then the sound became an uproarious crescendo, bouncing off the walls and soaring high unto the heavens.

He didn't want to hear it. He wanted to scratch his eardrums with pins and needles, claw at his remaining portal, anything to escape the light, the horrendous light!

He recalled a word that came to mind, a special kind of word he hadn't seen since the fall of the Uchiha clan. In the Nanga Shrine underneath the seventh _tatami_ mat on the right side of the hall. . .

One word stood out as Sasuke skimmed over the yellowed text on the scroll. One word as he watched Itachi disappear in whorls of long white hair and the darkness consumed him.

_"Sojobo. . ."_

* * *

Nightfall settled upon the Estate and Sasuke still hadn't come back. Team Hebi milled about the ruined premises, chunks of earth and concrete littered amongst hollowed riverbeds. Kisame, wounded from his fight with Suigetsu, departed in a ragged heap, commenting on how the younger Hozuki was shaping up to be like Mangetsu, his elder. Suigetsu took much pride in it, mulling over his victory while Karin and Juugo sat on the upturned boulders replenshing their lost chakra from constant jumping and evasion. 

Time passed and the afternoon gave way to eventide. Karin had been spouting questions back and forth about Sasuke's absence; Suigetsu figured the two Uchiha were engaged in an epic battle (as he put quite jokingly, much to the chakra specialist's ire). Juugo merely nodded, saying that it made the most sense for two enemies to strive for survival.

The questions ceased after that.

However, the night was growing old and concern gnawed at the brink of their curiosity. The restlessness was becoming too great to endure, so under the shadows they rose, weapons at the ready. It was before they left that Suigetsu made one final comment:

"Remember, we're here to check on him. For all we know he could still be fighting that Itachi guy."

"He's been gone too long," mentioned Karin, her grasp tightening on a three-pronged kunai. "What if something bad happened to him?"

"We won't find out unless we see him ourselves." Juugo reminded her, his right arm shapeshifted in the form of a spiked halberd.

"He's right, Karin," Suigetsu said. "Let's just sneak in and get the hell out."

They proceeded to the temple, blending into the twilight scenery and stealthily crossing tipped pillars and untouched ground. As they did so, a sed of dread was sown into their hearts, and with each step they took the fear began to leak from the confines of their sanity.

The shrine was engulfed in an all-encompassing blackness. An unnatural gust of wind billowed in the air, gelid gooseflesh erecting at its command. At the far corner of the room was a single sconce throwing its scarlet radiance upon the stone floor. Nothing else could be seen within ten feet of them.

Karin moved further into the illuminated entrance. Her gaze swept across the void, a broken accordion bouncing on its springs. "I don't feel anything. No chakra signatures, no residue, nothing."

"Maybe they've moved their battle elsewhere?" Juugo suggested.

She shook her head. "No. I can't feel them out. There's not a trace of them within miles."

At the same time, a single question was voiced. _'Where did Sasuke go?'_

Suigetsu stood next to the chakra specialist, one hand on the hilt of Kubikiri Hōchō. He joined in her surveyance, almost as if he (Team Hebi) were afraid to venture into the gloom. Something atrocious worked its way into his lungs, and Suigetsu swore ---- _swore_ ---- he smelled the iron tang of blood. With it was another scent, but the Hozuki couldn't pin such a name on such a foreign incense.

_(His ribcage rattled a thunderous beat, and his heart hovered in his throat)_

"Did you hear that?" he croaked, his posture stiffening. Before Juugo or Karin could answered, he added, "Shhh. Listen."

They did, and in a moment's notice they heard it: garbled, broken,_anguished_. Then another sound, wet and heavy, before it was abruptly cut off by the first sound. This time louder and evident: a_ moan_.

"Oh Dear Lord," Karin gasped, eyes wide with bleak realization. Her hands fled to her lips, a deep breath sucked in. "Oh Gods. . ." She broke into a sprint.

"Karin!" cried Suigetsu.

_"Oh Gods, Oh Gods, Oh Gods. . ."_ she mumbled, arms flailing wildly at her sides. As she drew closer to the fire's light, Karin saw a familiar form wrapped in black. "SASUKE!! Sasuke. . . !"

She hit the dirt and knelt next to him, who was face-down and unresponsive. She shook him fiercely, his body bouncing to her hand's rhythms. "Sasuke! Sasuke, wake up! WAKE UP, SASUKE!" Her chest heaved rapidly, sweat building on her forehead. Karin grabbed and turned the unconscious youth on his back. "Please be alright, Sasuke. Please be al---"

Sasuke's empty left eye stared back at her, and Karin screamed.

Suigetsu and Juugo immediately arrived at the scene. The sight which they beheld stole their breaths, their shocked expressions unable to tear away from the chilling image. Their leader, the Last Uchiha, lay in a pool of his own blood and vomit, his limbs contorting and twitching every so often. A second moan escaped him, but it was drowned out by Karin's hysterical sobbing and retching.

"It's gone!" she yelled, "It's _fucking GONE!_ Everything! Sharingan and all! Nothin' but a deep, dark abyss!" She gave a hard sniffle. "IT'S GONE!"

Juugo rushed to her with phantom grace. He crouched besider her and rubbed her back in slow circles. "Calm down, Karin. Relax. It's going to be okay. Shush, don't look. Suigetsu's going to take care of him."

But try as he might, Suigetsu couldn't fulfill that purpose. He had moderate knowledge in medical ninjutsu to patch up wounds, extracting poisons, and mending chakra pathways, but this type of injury was beyond his league. It was when he wiped the gore and and bile from Sasuke's face did Juugo detect a desperate urgency in his comrade's tone and movements.

"Sunnuva bitch, this is bad. This is _bad._ Six broken ribs, a hairline fracture, a dislocated shoulder, severe bruises, pupil's dilated, irregular heartbeat. . . . _Motherfuck! He's going into shock!_ Juugo! Get the fuck over here! Help me get 'im up!" Suigetsu swung his leader's right arm over his shoulder as the burly man took the other arm. "Okay, good, good. Easy. . . easy. . . ughh, alright. Karin! KARIN!_ Snap out of it!_ Goddamn it, woman, move your ass and _LET'S GO!"_

Karin stood on wobbly feet and buckling knees. She gripped her sore gut with one hand and wiped at her mouth with the other. Worry shone in porcelain portals. "Sasuke'll make out alright, won't he?"

"Not if he doesn't die on us!" Suigetsu shifted the unconscious Uchiha to a more comfortable position. He gestured towards the entrance. "Come on! I know a place where we can treat him!"

They left the temple behind them under the flight of weeping foliage. And wrapped in the sconce's bright, flickering flame, the full moon shone down on the statue of Sojobo the Tengu King, his wide grin an ivory corset against the crimson lifestain of his skin.

* * *

The world was an unholy shade of red. 

He dashed down the street, huffing and puffing with his feet pounding on dirt clods and plasma, leaving a glistening track in his wake. Everywhere he looked there was absolute devastation: kunai and shuriken imbedded in the wooden planks of houses and strewn across the tainted floor; _chochin_ lanterns ripped in halves; wall structures caved in; shop signs hanging loosely on their hinges, marked with blood; and hundreds upon hundreds of cadavers, each one linked to a different branch of the main tree. A kingdom among kingdoms, superior to all the clans known and unknown to the children of men.

The Uchiha clan, the mightiest and most feared clan in all of the Elemental Nations.

Until now. _(How the mighty have fallen)_. That fear would be taken to a whole new level. _(Fear the Hand of Madara)._

_'Who would do such a thing?'_, he wondered as fear compelled him headlong into hell. He kept his chin bent to avoid the glazed faces warped in horrific contortions of their tragic final moments, limbs and intestines and headless corpses littered in every mangled way imaginable. It was a dream, wasn't it? Just a horrible nightmare, right? The Uchiha were much too strong to fall that quickly. . .

_(How wrong he was. . .)_

_'Mother. . . Father. . . Brother. . .'_ He lifted frightened charcoal discs, noticing the only house on the street that wasn't damaged amidst the carnage: _his_ house. He picked up the pace, fingernails digging into his skin. Were they okay? Did they survive? The thought of his parents and older brother living gave him the second wind he needed to prove his fears and the countless worst-case scenarios rushing through his head all wrong.

_(HOW WRONG HE WAS)_

He leapt over the porch and burst through the open _shoji_ door. He checked each room he knew by heart, hoping and praying and chanting that his kin were alive despite the overwhelming odds. The strong stench of rotting flesh and fecal matter was death's ghostly incarnate. He resisted the urge to gag and regurgitate, so he pulled the collar of his shirt over his nose and journeyed forward.

_"MOTHER! FATHER!"_ A whiff of the ungodly scent made him cough violently. _"ITACHI!_ Where are you!?" Where had they gone? He was sure he didn't see them laying amongst the dead. However, there was one room he hadn't trespassed and that was the master bedroom. With this in mind he headed straight for that intended direction.

There were sounds coming from beyond the doors, but it was too muffled to be recognized. He skidded to a halt in front of the entrance and worked his fumbling hands on the crossbar. When he lifted the bolt from its cleats he pushed open the doors with a defeaning slam, adrenaline pumping frantically in his veins.

Just in time to see Itachi rip his _katana_ through Fugaku's chest.

The scream leap-frogged from his chest and out his mouth, watching with terror-stricken fascination as his father's life exploded in a vermillion fountain. It showered Itachi's alabaster complexion, his melanoid irises painting a cold, soulless montage of the Grim Reaper itself. Both were oblivious to the body landing on top of what was once Mikoto, her startled face partially submerged in the lifestain.

"Come to me, Sasuke," intoned the godless messenger, lowering his blade. "Come and give me light."

When he blinked Itachi was standing right in front of him, his free hand smothering his face.

He screamed again, smaller appendages clapped around his elder's wrists and wrestling with all his might. The demon stared down at him, undaunted. "Don't struggle, Sasuke. Give it to me. Light the world which thrives in the darkness."

Finally he pulled away the offending hand, turned around, and fled with hell snapping at his heels. He shrieked and screamed and cried and yelled even as he left the haunted manor behind, without a backwards glance and getting as far from Itachi as fast as possible.

He smacked into something solid. The wind was knocked out of him before he hit the ground, Itachi crushing his neck and gut with a hand and knee.

_"Give it to me, Sasuke!"_ he roared. "GIVE ME MY LIGHT! GIVE ME MY REALITY!!" His fingers groped the socket, probing its eyeball when his own shone with feverish lust.

_(FEAR THE HAND OF MADARA)_

The full moon wept mahogany sanguine and Itachi's face warped to a hideous caricature of insanity. Fanged teeth, sharp nose, thick brow, and the Mangekyou Sharingan spinning madly in its chambers. Before he died, before he crumbled into dust, he saw it: a massive shadow blocking out the sky, a morbid godhead of the underworld, bloody irises radiating in obsidian sunshine.

_(fEaR mE. FeAr Me. feAR mE. . .)_

He knew the Truth, and Itachi pulled.

_"AAAAAAAAHHH!"_

"SASUKE!"

"Hold him down! HOLD HIM DOWN!"

"His chakra's out of control!"

"He's having a seizure!"

"Put somethin' in 'is mouth before he swallows his tongue! Hold him down, Juugo!"

"Hang on, Sasuke!"

"HURRY UP!"

"Suigetsu, the Curse Seal. . . ! It's fluctuating!"

_"FUCK! Fuck, fuck, fuck!!"_

"Suigetsu. . . !"

"Hold him down! Karin, how much longer?"

"It's almost ready!"

"Fuck ready, it'll hafta do! Hand it over!"

Sasuke Uchiha struggled against his bonds and the weight pinning him to the ground. Fire tingled his skin and slithered along his abdomen and extremities. His chakra coils pumped and pumped, ready to burst from his core at any given moment. The world was spinning on its axis, around and around and around and around with no signs of stopping.

He wanted to be heard. He wanted it to stop. Everything hurt, hurt so damn much! He wanted it to go away, go away and never come back! He screamed, screamed as loud as he could, no matter if he screamed his throat dry and his lungs into submission. Sasuke screamed, but a hard object dampened his pleas.

_'HELP ME! KILL ME! SOMEBODY KILL ME! HELP ME! IT HURTS, IT HURTS! OH DEAR GODS, IT HURTS!'_

He was dimly aware of a sharp pain pricking his skin and a tide of scorching energy washing over his being. It did little to help for his heart began to drum harder, stronger, and faster, raindrops pattering against ceramic roof tiles. His breathing quickened, his blood boiled, and his vision diminished. First his periphery, then the edges, and lastly his sight as a whole.

Before he lost his battle to stay in the waking world, he noticed a human-shaped silhouette standing in the distance. Black against the blinding white backdrop, he felt the person's gaze bore into him, a stoney, fiery sensation welling at the back of his eye(s). If he looked hard enough, Sasuke would had been able to make out a pair of crimson irises and their twin kaleidoscopes.

_(In the Outer World, Karin held onto a hand that was turning cold, cold, cold. Next to her, Juugo was tightening the chakra-enhanced manacles on a body that was growing feeble, feeble, feeble. Across from them, Suigetsu kept the syringe's plunger suppressed, watching intently as the cyan liquid entered a bloodstream that was calming, soothing, relaxing.)_

Sasuke didn't need eyes or cloaks or _doujutsu_ to know who it was.

The demon smiled through its voice.

_"Foolish little brother. . ."_


End file.
